The Ring
by Query
Summary: An unexpected meeting and an unexpected gift steer Dee's life in new directions. Part 9 of the Jade Tiger Triad series.
1. Puzzles

  
  
The first few months of her training were as tough as when she had first arrived at Jiaoshu's. Never did it stop, and she began to get used to being woken at strange hours by many different guards for one reason or another. Manchu accompanied her to the tattoo parlor where there was a brief ceremony held before the outline of her tiger was applied to her left shoulder. Much to her surprise, the tattoo hurt a good deal less than what she thought it would. That was until Manchu decided to give her a pat on the back, purposefully giving the freshly tattooed skin a smack.  
  
Dee was happy when things settled into a somewhat predictable program. Now that she had listed duties to accomplish during the hours she was not on guard duty, studying, or working on any chores, she was able to pick her hobbies up again. For her work, she was being paid a small amount enough to allow her to purchase anything she might wish or need that was not already provided for her. Mostly what she now purchased was masses of games and puzzles.  
  
In the years since leaving the orphanage, she had not lost her love of games. While they were not discouraged at Jiaoshu's, they had not always on hand, nor did she have the amount of time for them. Now she did, however, and she took her love back up the way a drowning person takes their first pure breath of air. She had long ago completed the few puzzle boxes and games that the house held.  
  
There were days when she was free from any duty and she spent much of her time in the many game stores that were scattered around the city. Manchu would always tease her about the little trinkets she would return home with, hugging them to herself as if they were the most precious thing on the planet.  
  
"The keep me entertained," she sniffed indignantly one night when she wasn't in the mood to be teased.  
  
"Why don't you find yourself a boy to keep you entertained? You never seem interested in going out unless it's to have a soda with us. Don't you want someone in your life?"  
  
Her mouth turned down in a frown as she looked at him. "You, out of anyone here, should not be telling me this. You don't even have a girlfriend! And besides, I'm just not...I'm not interested right now," she finished softly.  
  
"Not interested? I see you looking at boys all the time! Have you never gone up to one and asked for him to take you out?"  
  
A groan of exasperation met this question. "Manchu, listen. I just haven't met anyone that I could be interested in, ok? It's as simple as that." She gave a shrug. "You, you have the girls all vying for your attention. But look at me. I'm the white girl here. It shouldn't matter, but it seems to."  
  
"Chun finds you attractive. He would take you out."  
  
Rolling her eyes, Dee fell backwards on her bed. "Chun, Manchu? Chun is a nice guy, but he's only interested in me for one thing."  
  
"How do you know this?"  
  
"Please. I've been working guard duty with the guy and kicking his ass since we were twelve. Do you know why I was so rough on him when we sparred?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Manchu bit his bottom lip as he tried not to laugh. "He didn't, did he?"  
  
"He always claimed that he thought he was grabbing my shoulders. These," she gestured to her breasts, "are not my shoulders. Nor are they any other part that is made for grappling during a fight."  
  
The burst of laughter that came out of Manchu at that moment earned him a pillow in the face, knocking him onto the floor. He came up, red faced from laughing, yet signaling for a truce.  
  
"What about when you go out in the city? Certainly other guys would notice you and want to take you out. Just because you live here doesn't mean that you can't date outside of this area."  
  
"Ugh! They're just as bad everywhere, Ping! I can't take the leering, the wolf whistles, the constant shouts of 'Hey, baby! Wanna ride my rod?' and them making those offensive gestures!" She waved her hands in front of her face in disgust. "I will never stand for any man calling me 'baby' or 'babe' because he thinks it's charming!"  
  
"What about 'girlie'?" Manchu asked, recalling the boys from the park.  
  
Dee growled at that. Her hair seemed to stand on end as her teeth were bared and she punched a pillow. "Never! I refuse to let any man call me any silly name such as that! The ones that do that don't want a woman! They want a soft, defenseless little girl to take care of!"  
  
"Whoa, calm down, Xiaohu. I think that before you go beating up every man for that, you should at least give him a warning. You know. To be fair. If he does care about you, he'll know that when you say you don't like that, you mean it."  
  
"Hmph. And what about you? All these girls wanting to go out with you. Have you picked one yet?"  
  
"No. I've taken a couple of them out, but they're all interested in the fact that I'm in the Triad. That's the trouble when all the girls you spend a lot of time around are also trying to get in." He frowned. "They all think that if they get close to me, they'll have a better chance at getting accepted."  
  
"Oh, boy." She shook her head. "Well, perhaps we'll end up being the lone bachelor and bachelorette of this group."  
  
"As grumpy as you've been lately, you'll turn out to be Po Sin," he teased. A glare from Dee quieted him. "Truce, truce! We have time ahead of ourselves. No hurry, right?"  
  
"Right. But it certainly would be nice to be able to go to the movies and curl up with someone once in a while."  
  
Chuckling, Manchu stood. "You're a hopeless romantic, you know that? Truly hopeless."  
  
"Hey, there's a carnival going on the weekend before my birthday. Wanna go with me? I'll buy you a corndog!"  
  
"Two. And a popcorn."  
  
"Deal," Dee said with a smile.  
  



	2. The Carnival Barker

  
  
It was a warm day and the two friends dressed accordingly. Despite her annoyance at the catcalls she got, Dee still dressed as she wanted. She wore a short top that showed off her midriff and shorts that made her legs look longer than they were. Her hair was pulled into pigtail braids and she carried a small backpack with her wallet and a light jacket inside.  
  
"What do you want to do first?" Manchu asked as they weaved through the crowd on the midway.  
  
"Eat, of course!"  
  
The two hurried over to the closest corndog stand and ordered two each along with some fries and a soda to share. Finding a patch of grass in the shade of a tree, they sat down and watched the other carnival goers as they ate.  
  
"No wonder the boys haven't asked you on a date. Look at you eat!" Manchu teased, swiping at a spot of ketchup on her cheek.  
  
She just grinned. "If a man wants a girl that nibbles on a leaf of lettuce, giggles, and claims to be full, then he can have her. As for me, I'll stick with eating the foods I like and as much of them as I want!"  
  
"Good, because those girls give me the creeps. Have you noticed some of them at the boarding house lately?" He rolled his eyes. "They might be pretty in the face, but they are so skinny their bones stick out everywhere! A man could get hurt trying to cuddle that!"  
  
Dee laughed as she tossed the stick to her second corndog onto her tray. "No kidding. You should have heard Li Mei going off about how much food those girls are wasting. Apparently they won't eat anything that has ground meat in it anymore. They think it's just ground fat with a little bit of protein."  
  
Gathering their trash, the two got up and headed down the midway again. They stopped and bought some cotton candy, eating that as they wandered off the main strip and into the games and rides.  
  
"Step right up here! Beat the game and win a prize!" a barker called out.  
  
His eyes sparkled as he saw Dee pull Manchu to a stop to watch him. He smiled at her, giving her a flirtatious wink. She blushed and clutched Manchu's arm in a nervous grip, stepping slightly behind him.  
  
Calling out again, the barker caught the attention of a couple near his booth. "What do you say there, young man? Step up and win your lady a prize!"  
  
"What do I gotta do?" the man asked.  
  
"What you gotta do, my friend, is put together this simple puzzle in the allotted time!" the barker said, waving his hand over the jumble of pieces on the table.  
  
"Yeah? That's it?"  
  
"That's it. But if you can't put it together, you owe me two dollars. You put it together, I pay you two and give you a prize!"  
  
With a cocky grin, the contestant agreed. Dee watched with amusement as the man tried for the next few minutes to get the puzzle started. Before the man even got two pieces together, the buzzer rang.  
  
"I'm truly sorry, sir. But nice try." The barker leaned, looking over the top of his glasses as he pushed up the brim of his hat and gave the man a grin. "That'll be two dollars, please."  
  
"This thing is fixed! The pieces don't go together!" the man complained even as he fished the money out of his wallet.  
  
"Nonsense, my good man! It goes together as easy as one, two, three!" In the time it took the man to speak the sentence, the puzzle was together and held in the palm of his hand.  
  
"C'mon, let's get outta here," the man said, roughly pulling his girlfriend away.  
  
The barker chuckled as he dismantled the puzzle and placed it back on the table. A smirk ticked up the corner of his mouth and he pulled his glasses down at a pleasing angle. The man's green eyes glinted as he winked at Dee again, and then turned to Manchu.  
  
"What about you, young man? Care to win your girl a fine prize?" he asked, squeaking the head of a doll on the shelf behind him.  
  
Dee just grinned, embarrassed, and yet interested in this young man behind the table at the same time. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than her.  
  
"I'm not good at puzzles. Those are more her department," he said, giving Dee a small push forward. Her timid behavior told him the fact that his friend found this man attractive.  
  
"So, the little lady has an interest in puzzles, hm? Care to give it a try?" he asked.  
  
His voice seemed to caress her senses, making her spine tingle pleasantly. She found herself acting coy and scuffing her toe behind her. "No, thanks. I'm not that good with puzzles. Besides, this one's rigged," she said, bolstering courage to look the young man in the eye.  
  
One dark eyebrow shot up and his smile widened at her. "Now why would you say this is rigged, Kitten?"  
  
Manchu cringed, waiting for Dee to say something about being called a pet name. Instead her blush deepened and she crossed her arms under her breasts.  
  
"Just seems like no one could possibly win it without those glasses you've got on."  
  
The man seemed to stop breathing for a moment as the glasses slipped off the end of his nose and onto the ground in front of Dee. Bending down, she picked the glasses up and tilted them at the puzzle. Giving a satisfied nod, she folded the stems, and placed them in the man's awaiting hand. As she placed the glasses in his hand, he curled his fingers to caress her wrist.  
  
"You've got the pieces marked. If I could borrow your glasses, I'd gladly pay to play. But maybe another time," she said, quickly taking Manchu's hand and wheeling him away. As she walked away, she turned and looked over her shoulder at him, popping a piece of cotton candy in her mouth.  
  
It took the barker a moment to recover from the redhead with the pigtails. He watched for a moment while the two disappeared into the crowd, letting out a low whistle. "Wow," he mumbled.  
  
"A girl like that would never give you the time a day," chuckled the man in the next booth who had watched the entire exchange. "You can't even get a date with the girl at the ticket booth!"  
  
The barker leveled a glare at his co-worker. Shrugging his uniform jacket off, he tossed it, along with his glasses and hat, to the back of the booth.  
  
"I'm going on break," he grumbled, stalking off to the midway. He had a sudden craving for cotton candy.  
  



	3. Longing

  
  
"You liked him. Why didn't you say something?" Manchu pressed later that night while they sat in her room.  
  
"Him who?" she asked, pretending not to remember. Truth was, she couldn't stop thinking about the man.  
  
"Don't play that game with me, Dee. If I hadn't been there, you would've passed out on the ground when he looked at you. I thought you might even with me there."  
  
She gave an indifferent shrug. "What am I gonna do about it, huh? He's older than I am..."  
  
"He didn't look much older than twenty-three, if that. What's five years?"  
  
"He's too good looking not to have a girlfriend already. Plus, what do I really know about him anyway, other than he runs a scam booth at the carnival. The carnival that is being packed up as we speak."  
  
Manchu shook his head. "You'll never find anyone at this rate. You could've at least asked his name."  
  
Dee rubbed her temples. "Manchu, could we please not go into this right now. I think I just want to take a bath and call it a night. I have watch at 3 AM anyway."  
  
Standing up, he kissed the top of her head. "Fine, Ai. But you must stop being so shy at the wrong moments. He seemed nice enough. And if he wasn't, you could kick his ass." The last was said with a smile as he caressed her cheek before leaving.  
  
After undressing, she wrapped herself in her robe, and stood in front of the mirror. She now loved the shape of her body. It had curves that were pleasing to the eye and they were all real. Her limbs were lithe and had firm, yet gentle muscles; none of that ugly bulging that she had seen on some women. Smoothing her hands down her body, she sighed as the thought of the carnival barker passed through her mind. The feel of his warm fingertips ghosted over the spot he had touched on her wrist.  
  
Here she was almost seventeen, and a boy had never kissed her. Manchu was like a brother to her, so that never counted. Thinking about it, she couldn't even decide if any of the guys she knew in the triad were interesting enough to just even kiss. Shaking all thoughts of boys from her mind, she swung her bath case over her shoulder and headed for the warm, soothing waters.  
  



	4. The Ring

  
  
Early on the morning of her birthday, Jiaoshu came to Dee's room. When she answered her door, he spoke only a few words, telling her to follow him. Confused, Dee pulled on her robe and followed the man down the stairs and into the basement. She asked no questions as to where he was leading her. At the moment, she was more curious to see where they were going than anything else. Though she had played many places in the house as a child, she had never been this far into the cellars that ran deep under the old building.  
  
Jiaoshu stopped at a door that was covered by an enameled painting of the tiger that symbolized the Triad. From his robes he pulled a large key ring, selecting a very old looking key. Though the lock and key looked old, they were apparently kept in good working order. The mechanics turned with a soft click and the heavy door swung slightly open. Pushing the door open wide, he waved for Dee to proceed him. The door clanged shut and the lock turned once more as Jiaoshu locked them in the dimly lit room.  
  
{The Elders told me that I had to wait until today to bring you down here. It is one of the rules that was decided when you were made an honorary member instead of full.} He shook his head, his eyes hinting at the sadness he felt from the original decision. {Every new member is brought down here on the night they are accepted. I wished with all my heart that I could have brought you down here a year ago.}  
  
Dee's forehead furrowed at the man. As she looked at him, she now noticed how much gray had appeared in his hair, almost covering the black. He still stood tall and strong, however, and still carried himself with pride. Turning his back on her, he walked to the far end of the room, almost disappearing in the shadows. When he turned back around, he had a very old wooden chest in his hands. Carrying it to the center of the room, he placed it on a table and gestured Dee forward.  
  
Silently he unlocked and opened the chest. Dee's breath caught in her throat at the sight that greeted her. It was like all the pictures she had seen of a pirate's chest full of treasure. The only difference was this chest was organized. Rows of gleaming jewelry lined up neatly, each nestled down in the velvet of its compartment. Lockets, necklaces, brooches, earrings, rings, and more were in the chest. Dee watched, as layer upon layer was uncovered, each containing something new and unusual.  
  
{There. That is all of it. You may now choose one item that will be yours for the rest of your life.}  
  
{I...Jiaoshu, I couldn't possibly take anything from here,} stammered Dee.  
  
Cupping her chin, he smiled at her, fatherly love sparkling in his eyes. {Xiaohu, you need not worry about accepting this gift. All of it finds its way back to us somehow in the end. It is said that every single piece has a special power that it grants to the one lucky enough to choose it.}  
  
Walking around the table, Dee patiently looked over each tray. Bright metals and jewels sparkled in the dim light, yet her hand never reached out. It wasn't until she was almost to the end that she turned and looked in the very bottom of the chest as she passed it. In mid step, she stopped and timidly reached her hand into the chest. With trembling hands, she picked up a ring with a dangling chain. Hesitantly she slipped it onto her left hand, fastened the chain around her wrist, and then looked up at her teacher.  
  
To her surprise, the man stood and looked at her, eyes wide with shock. His eyes flicked to the ring, which sat on her hand, and back to her eyes. Though he opened his mouth to speak, no sound came out.  
  
{Is something the matter, Jiaoshu? Did I choose wrongly?} she asked, her voice filling with anxiety as she attempted to unclasp the chain around her wrist. Fumbling, Dee found that she had a hard time finding the proper joint to open.  
  
{No, no, my child! You have chosen well. Please excuse my shock. You see, the last one to wear that ring, to even be able to place it on her finger, lived nearly four hundred years ago!} He shook his head, putting himself to the task of replacing the trays in the chest. {That ring has never called out to anyone since before my time. Certainly one or two have tried to wear it, but the ring refused to stay.}  
  
Petting the long chain, Dee looked the ring over. It was silver in color, but the metal shone too brightly to be silver. The ring itself was shaped like the head of a cat, two emeralds placed carefully for eyes. The chain that attached the ring to her wrist was jointed and upon closer inspection seemed to be a tail.  
  
{The ring that has chosen you is a very special ring. According to legend, it only accepts one owner at a time. There is no way that anyone else can wear that ring so long as you draw breath. Even if something were to happen to you, it is up to the ring to accept its new owner.}  
  
{Do you know what power it's supposed to have?} Dee asked, fingering the jointed chain.  
  
A grunt came from Jiaoshu as he took her left hand and looked at the ring. {It is said that the wearer will have control over the feline form.}  
  
{You mean I can control cats?}  
  
{That I am not certain of. What I remember from stories is that you, the wearer, will be able to become a cat. All human thoughts, but the form of a feline.} The old man took a breath and shook himself. {But those are details for you to work out. The ring does not come with an instruction book. Remember, this is a gift that is not to be taken lightly. Learn to control it and it will be a great gift.}  
  



	5. Changeling

  
  
Over the next few weeks Dee worked hard to learn how to use the ring. A full transformation was difficult to do at first. She would almost fully change before losing her concentration and returning to human form. With practice, however, she soon had a basic transformation down. The form she managed to complete the easiest was a tiger. With the name of the triad, it was the main feline image that stuck in her mind.  
  
The first time she managed to change, she noticed a few things immediately. Her senses all seemed heightened. Every scent was sharp and tickled her nose. The underlying smells in her room came at her suddenly and she sneezed, losing feline form as she lost concentration. A light dusty smell came from her bookshelf. The tang of peach oil she wore on occasion wafted from her bedding.  
  
One of the changes that fascinated her was her sense of sight. While she had very good vision and noticed details some missed, it increased when she changed. The planes of an object looked odd with her new vision. Edges seemed sharper or softer, depending on the material. Her greatest joy was the fact that her night vision also enhanced as a cat's did. It served her well on her night watches.  
  
At meals or when she had a snack, she would change form to compare taste. The vast difference in what she tasted as a human compared to a feline shocked her. Every aspect of taste surprised her. It was as if she tasted her food for the first time in her life. The sweetness of red bean in a bun became almost overpowering. The saltiness, hinged with a slight sour or bitterness, of a pickled vegetable made her change back to human form and rush for water.  
  
Her hearing had also become extremely acute when she changed. With the ability to rotate her ears, her range had increased. She jumped when she heard a knock, only to realize that it had come from far down the hall. Learning to tell when something was near or far would come with practice.  
  
Finally came her sense of touch. Her whiskers felt like little wires stuck into her cheeks. They jittered and felt out of place when they would brush up against something. Under her paws, the slickness of the wooden and tiled floors came through. The carpet felt like some odd grass under her pads. She did, however, find out just how wonderful it was to lie in a patch of sun-warmed carpet. The fibers took on a whole other feeling when warmed.  
  
But the easiest transformation for her to make was into half feline form. Thinking of herself as a humanoid feline just seemed a bit more natural to her. Her reflection amused her and she spent a long time making faces at herself in the mirror. Of course, her favorite thing was to play pranks on Manchu when he was on guard duty. Her favorite time to spook him was on dark, almost moonless nights, or coming out of the fog that would sometimes blanket the city.  
  
Sneaking around the corner of the building, Dee would come up from behind Manchu, the fur she was cloaked in a dark or grey color. The first couple of times she scared him she ended up hauling buckets of water back and forth across the courtyard in front of her guard master. It hadn't mattered because Manchu and her had a good laugh about it the next night. All in all, she took her punishments for her actions with good humor. After her third punishment, Jiaoshu decided to ask the Explosive Master, Kên Huo, to give her some extra work to keep her busy.  
  
{That shouldn't be a problem, Jiaoshu. The girl is skilled enough now that I could use her help preparing more items that are needed,} he had said. He stopped her one day, noticing she wasn't doing exactly what he had set her to. {Where did you learn to piece things together like this?} he asked as he lifted an explosive she had managed to scale down fifty percent.  
  
She didn't want to say anything, but she knew she couldn't just keep quiet to her Master. {I like putting things together. It's like a puzzle, only you remove the parts that you don't need. You just have to see where the pieces fit and where they don't,} she said, waving to the little bits and pieces she had scattered on her work surface.  
  
To prove her point, she took one of the old teaching devices made out of large, cumbersome parts. In seconds she had stripped it down to the individual pieces. Picking around through what she had on her counter, she pulled out pieces which were similar, yet a fraction of the size. As Kên Huo watched, the girl put together an exact replica of the larger model, only a fourth of the size.  
  
{But this will have less power, Xiaohu. You will have to use more explosive to get it to do the same job.}  
  
Dee shook her head and carefully sliced off a piece of plastic explosive, tucking it with precise care into the empty spot on the device. Picking it up, she took it to the testing area and hooked it up. To the shock of Kên Huo, the device exploded with such force that it ruptured some of the protective sandbags piled around.  
  
{The device uses the same amount of explosive. It's the mechanics that are scaled down, sir. Carrying around all that heavy equipment for a job, as well as your devices, is hard to do. I haven't had the chance to actually put it into practice, but they have been training me on what I will carry when I am finally allowed to go on a job.} Dee bowed respectfully to the man who had been so patiently training her. She feared to insult him, but was greeted with a mirthful belly laugh.  
  
{All these years I have not changed a thing in the making of my apparatus. And why? Because I did not think about it.} He shook his head, the long graying queue at the back of his head swaying like a snake. {Xiaohu, I was never a foot soldier, did you know that?}  
  
{No, sir. You never told me.}  
  
{When I was young, I sustained an injury that prevented me from finishing training. Do not misunderstand. I can protect myself. But it is here that my skills lie. I never considered the amount that a soldier would have to carry with them to get through a job. I knew there was the rope, the odd weapon or two.} Here he shrugged. {Everything else was empty space and I saw no need to scale anything down. You have a point, however. Everything is getting smaller these days, is it not? Computers, telephones...} He paused once more, and grinned at her, ruffling her hair. {Our soldiers. From now on, we will work on making things smaller and keeping the power, yes?}  
  
Beaming up at him, she nodded her head. {I'm certain everyone will be happy to hear about this when you tell them.}  
  



	6. Feline Fury

  
  
The work she did helping Master Huo scale down all the devices he had kept her busy and honed her skills at taking apart and putting things together. It left her little time for any mischief since she filled any free time she had practicing her shape shifting or working on puzzles. One night after finishing a grueling practice session after piecing together explosive devices for six hours straight, Dee collected up her things and headed for the open bathing pools.  
  
Placing her robe and towel aside, she slipped into the waters that held a mist clinging just above the surface. The night was cool and the warmth of the bath was welcome to her stiff limbs. Her thoughts drifted and she found herself, as she usually did when she had time for her own thoughts, thinking about boys. Floating on her back, the mist slipping over her form, she suddenly realized the person she was thinking about was the carnival barker. Why was she letting someone she had spent barely any time talking to get to her this way?  
  
Sighing, she closed her eyes and placed a picture of him in her head. Never mind that the carnival had been over and done with for months now. The glint of his eye when he winked at her, the surprised look on his face when she told him he was cheating, all were followed by an unearthly tingle that gave her goose bumps, even in the warm water.  
  
Her mouth had just pulled into a small smile as she heard his voice whisper "Kitten" in her ear, when another noise caught her attention. Letting her feet sink to the bottom of the pool, she moved quietly to the edge of the pool. Once more she heard the noise, a kind of deep laughter followed by a hiss as someone tried to hush the noise. Noiselessly she pulled her body out of the water and wrapped her towel securely around herself. The noise was coming from the left and up, behind the bamboo screen.  
  
{Shut up! We shouldn't even be here!} a familiar voice said in a raspy whisper.  
  
Dee's eyes narrowed as she homed in on the exact location of the voices, a small overhanging on the roof. A pigmy cherry tree grew near the screen and Dee now shifted into a small cat and quickly climbed it. Balancing herself on the edge of the screen, she launched herself to the roof, ending up around the corner from where the voices were coming from.  
  
{She won't hear us. She's too busy daydreaming!} There was a pause and a soft scraping noise. {Where'd she go?}  
  
{Let's go, _now_! She probably heard you!} the first voice said.  
  
A dark figure of a man was silhouette in front of her, his back to her. Just as she shifted into half feline form, a second figure appeared, his face just visible to her. Immediately he saw her glowing feline eyes, cringed, and took the other man by the arm.  
  
{C'mon. This isn't a good idea,} he said trying to hurry the man forward.  
  
Shaking the hand off, the man said, {What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Besides, you've probably seen her naked plenty of times, man. You're always hanging out in her room or her in your room! You said yourself that you two were nothing more than friends. Don't be so jealous and let a guy get a look at that hot body of hers!}  
  
{You mean this body, Chun?} Dee said in a growl.  
  
His body went stiff and he visibly flinched. Slowly he turned around and found himself face to face with a half feline Dee, cloaked in thick tiger fur. A nervous laugh bubbled out of his throat as he put an arm behind his head.  
  
{Xiaohu, hi,} he began.  
  
{Xiaohu, I had nothing to do with this,} Manchu said quickly.  
  
She quieted him with a glare and he knew he was in for trouble later. Her smoldering gaze settled on Chun who was tugging at his collar, trying to find a way to escape. No one spoke as Dee watched them both with an unsettling stare. It was bad enough that Chun had come to spy on her in the bath. She realized she was angrier about the fact that they had interrupted her daydream.  
  
{It isn't what it looks like, really,} Chun started.  
  
Without a word, Dee balled her hand into a fist and punched him in the nose. Chun staggered back, clutching at his bleeding nose. Manchu caught him under his arms before he could lose balance and tumble off the roof. Sharply turning on her heel, Dee jumped from the roof, landing in a nearby tree. In a flash of fur she was gone, heading back to the pool to collect her robe.  
  
It wasn't until she got back to her room that she realized she was still in feline form, the hair on the back of her neck raised and her tail lashing. Shifting back into human form, she tugged the towel off herself, rubbing down her trembling body. Never had she felt so betrayed before in her life! Climbing into bed, she pulled the covers over herself as a few warm tears slid down her face.  
  
_Why can't guys just treat me decently?_ she asked herself. Shivering at the thought of being watched like that, by someone she was supposed to trust even, she hugged a pillow to herself.  
  


~ ~ ~

The following night Dee had guard duty with Chun. When the guard master asked Chun what happened to him, his story was that it had been an accident in training. Dee said nothing and was more than willing to let Chun keep that lie. What was curious to her was that he also had a black eye. She was completely embarrassed that a boy had been trying to see her naked. No male had ever seen her naked, and the thought horrified her.  
  
Chun acted haughtily toward her. Should she see him looking her way, his look was always one of annoyed anger, as if she had been the one to do wrong. It infuriated her, but she let it slide for now. Earlier that day she had asked for the gap through which he had been looking to be patched. She was pleased to see that it had been and the view into the women's bathing pool was completely obscured now.  
  
When her shift ended, she returned to her room to find Manchu waiting inside for her. She glared at him as she pulled her hair out of the braid it was in and kicked off her tabby shoes.  
  
"What do you want?" she growled.  
  
"I came to apologize since you've been avoiding me all day. Don't roll your eyes at me, ok? Just listen and stop being stubborn. I know you want to be mad at me right now, but I had _nothing_ to do with Chun being up there. The guy told me to meet him up there at a certain time. Said he wanted me to see something with him. When I found out what he was doing, I tried to get him to leave. He thought I was mad because you and I were a couple."  
  
Dee remained silent, but let him talk. She knew she was going to forgive him anyway, so it was best to let him have his say.  
  
"I explained that we're just good friends. He doesn't understand that. Today he told me he thinks I was lying and that we actually are going out together. Said some stuff that really pissed me off." The usually placid Manchu looked angry now and she noticed his hands ball into fists.  
  
"That's why he has a black eye," she laughed. "Manchu, I'm sorry I got mad at you. I know you wouldn't do anything like that. It's just..."  
  
"I know. You don't have to say it. Friends again?"  
  
In answer, she gave him a hug. "You should hear the story he told the guard master tonight," she said.  
  
Sitting down on the bed together, Dee told Manchu the story Chun had made up as an excuse for the injuries he had received at the hands of the two.  
  



End file.
